Roasted Cauliflower, Garbanzos & Olives

Sometimes I come upon a recipe and instantly know it will be a good one.

I don't know where or when I saw this recipe for Roasted Cauliflower, Garbanzos & Olives, but at the time, I jotted it down.  Maybe I was waiting at the doctor's office, hair salon or wherever.

A few days ago, I dug out the recipe and all the ingredients I needed to make the recipe.

The dish is so easy and takes just a few minutes to prepare.

First I drained and rinsed a can of garbanzos and halved some anchovy-stuffed green olives. 

Then I chopped half a cauliflower into small florets and also rough- chopped some garlic.

I tossed everything together and added some olive oil, salt, pepper and chili flakes.

When everything was really well mixed, I spread the mixture on a baking pan lined with parchment and popped it into a 450° oven.  After 10 minutes, I stirred the mixture around a bit and then roasted it for another 12 minutes.  By this time, the cauliflower was turning brown and the beans and garlic were also turning colour. 

You have to watch for that fine line between letting the garlic brown just a bit and not letting it burn and become bitter.  In the following photo you can see that my cauliflower and garbanzos are just tinged with brown at the edges and there are no burnt pieces of garlic.










I spooned the mixture into a bowl and allowed it to sit on the counter for awhile to meld the flavours even more. 

Just before serving the dish, I seasoned it with a bit more salt and pepper and garnished it with a bit of chopped parsley.

 

We ate part of the Roasted Cauliflower, Garbanzos & Olives the day I prepared it, and the next day, I tossed some toasted cumin seed into the remainder for a bit of a different taste.

It tasted really good both ways.

Here's the recipe if you want to try it.

Roasted Cauliflower Garbanzos & Olives                450 °F

 

Really tasty.

 

1 small cauliflower (or half a large one), broken into small florets

12 pitted green olives, halved (if you can find olives stuffed with anchovies, use them)

8 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

1 x 15 oz can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

3 tbsp olive oil

½ tsp red chili flakes (or more to taste)

salt and pepper

chopped fresh parsley for garnish

  

Combine, cauliflower, olives, garlic, garbanzo beans, oil and chili flakes and mix well.  Spread this on a baking pan lined with parchment.   Roast mixture for 10 minutes and then give it a stir.  Roast for another 10 minutes or so or ‘til the cauliflower is starting to brown at the edges.   Spoon the mixture into a serving dish, season with salt and pepper and garnish with some chopped parsley.

1934 Christmas Catalogue

My friend Maggie, from back home, sent me a copy of a Christmas Catalogue produced by Montgomery Ward in 1934.  That doesn't seem all that long ago, but how times have changed since then.

I intended to include the following pages from that catalogue in one of my  blogs around Christmas time, but got so busy that I never got around to it, so I've attached them now. 

 



 

As a matter of interest, read the last line of this order form.

 

It's more than just prices that have changed over time.

Back to Blogging

All of December and the first part of January were really busy for us around here.   

Visitors started arriving in Guayabitos at the beginning of December and the last of them left on January 18th.

It was great to see and entertain all our guests who'd been here before, and it was fun to introduce our new, first-time guests to all the many attractions of Riviera Nayarit.   

After the last guests left, we had the painter here for a full week scraping, sanding and painting the wrought iron bars that are permanently attached to the doors and our windows of Casa Que Sera.

This was a huge job that created huge messes every day, We had copious amounts of old paint, rust and black dust everywhere

The other 6 humongous bars, which get attached to the patio doors and windows on the waterside of our casa before we head home for the summer,  also had to be sanded and painted.

These huge bars were particularly rusty from the salty, ocean air and had to be stripped and painted in the basement, so it got especially dirty down there.  

 
During this time, we also had a plumber here changing many of our taps and the shower head in our ensuite bath, because they had badly corroded over time.  One of the taps in our powder room had actually broken into several pieces because of the invasive corrosion.
 
Yesterday, Bruce, myself, Carlos and Maria scrubbed Casa Que Sera from top to bottom and got rid of all the grime left behind by the workers.
 
Today is our first day, in a very long time, with no one around and nothing out of the ordinary that needs cleaning.    Maybe now I can get back to writing the occasional blog.

Carla has been complaining that she misses reading my blogs before leaving for work in the mornings.   She just had some surgery done yesterday and will be off work for 6 weeks, so I'll do my best to write a little something each day.  I know that everyone who's been here enjoys reading my blog 'cause it makes them feel a little closer to Mexico on dull, dreary days.

Today, the sun is shining, there's a few wispy clouds in the sky and the temperature is in the 80's, so it's a beautiful day.

The Highlite of Cory & Cole's Vacation

Nearly everyday that Cory, Jen and the kids were here, Cory would grab his fly rod and head out to do a little fishing in  the ocean right out in front of us.







































The local Mexicans would watch in awe as Cory caught one fish after another.  They couldn't believe that he could catch so many fish with just a tiny little fly at the end of his line.

Cory, Jen, Cass and Cole also hired a guide and went out in a boat a couple of times while they were here and had a lot of fun. 
 
The girls mainly went out to soak up the sun and watch Cory and Cole race to see who could land the most fish.  

 

 At the end of the day, Cole was the winner and caught one more fish than his dad.

   


























The boys came back with this huge mess of fish.   

Cory is normally a "catch and release" fisherman, but this time, he gave all these fish to the guide.  The Mexicans love to make ceviche with the little fish called, Chile Verde, and any other type of small fish.







































The next time the crew went fishing, they lucked out again and caught a bunch more fish, so came home happy. 

The guide also went away happy with his pockets full of pesos and more fresh fish for dinner.

Mexican Flag

The Flag of Mexico (Bandera de Mexico) is green, white and red with the national coat of arms in the centre of the white stripe. 

White stands for transparency of the catholic faith, red stands for the blood shed during Mexico's struggle for independence and green represents hope and peace.

The form of the coat of arms on the flag was most recently revised in 1968. Throughout history, the flag has changed four times, as the design of the coat of arms and the length-width ratios of the flag have been modified, but

the coat of arms has had the same features throughout  - an eagle, holding a serpent in its talon, is perched on top of a prickly pear cactus, and the cactus is situated on a rock that rises above  a lake. 

This coat of arms is derived from an Aztec legend that their gods told them to build a city where they could see an eagle sitting on a cactus eating a serpent. That city is now Mexico City. 

Chiles Rellenos en Nogada

Chiles Rellenos en Nogada is a classic, traditional Mexican dish that has the three colours of the Mexican flag.

The poblano chile in Chiles en Nogada is green, the walnut sauce is white and the pomegranate seeds are red.

Chiles en Nogada is roasted poblano peppers stuffed with a picadillo made of pork, nuts, fruits and veggies and then covered with a creamy walnut sauce.  The dish is then garnished with pomegranate seeds and parsley .

The first time I tasted Chiles en Nogada was during a buying trip to Tlaquepaque and Tonala.  After shopping one day, we stopped at a little restaurant in Tonala that specialized in Chiles en Nogada, so I decided to try them.

Then sometime later, I decided to make this colourful dish. 

After roasting some poblano peppers, I put them in plastic bag to steam and then removed as much as the scorched skin as possible.

Then I prepared the picadillo stuffing and stuffed the poblanos and placed them in the oven to bake.

In the meantime I prepared the walnut sauce to spoon over the stuffed poblanos.

I also removed a bunch of pomegranate seeds from their rinds and chopped some parsley.

Chiles en Nogada is a dish that takes a while to prepare, but is worth the effort.

Chiles en Nogada is a very festive dish that also works beautifully with the reds, whites and greens of the Christmas season.